President urged to sign amended law for 319 probe

CNA , TAIPEI

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus urged President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday to sign and promulgate a newly passed amendment to provide for the establishment of a commission to probe the March 19, 2004 shooting of the president and the vice president.

The legislature amended the Organic Statute for the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Commission (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例) early last month in accordance with a ruling by the Council of Grand Justices that some clauses in the original version of the law were unconstitutional. The amendment was then submitted to the president for his signature.

At a press conference at the Legislative Yuan, KMT caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) disclosed that instead of promulgating the amendment into law, the president said last Friday that some clauses were still unconstitutional and should be either further amended or referred to the grand justices for their views on its constitutionality.

Pan claimed the president's move to block the legislation apparently showed that he "simply does not have a clear conscience" because, as the major victim of the shooting, he should be the person most anxious to get to the bottom of the incident.

She said the legislature had already responded to the Council of Grand Justices by making necessary changes to the clauses in question, and that it was now up to the president to promulgate the amended law within 10 days from receiving it in accordance with Article 72 of the Constitution.

The KMT legislator said the president had no right to give instructions or to ask the legislature to change the law again.